I’ll leave this exploration with a favorite sign of mine, from Venice. All over the island of Venice are printed signs saying “Per San Marco” or “Per Rialto.” Since Venice is such a warren of walkways, bridges and canals, it is very easy to get lost. Often we found ourselves wandering and the only way to figure out where we were was to go back to Piazza San Marco or the Rialto bridge and start again, so these signs became a lifeline. My favorite sign image is this hand-painted sign, found off the beaten path in a back alley. There were none of the “official” signs around, so someone took matters into their own hands and created this one. They were probably tired of the tourists asking for directions. 🙂

You can still link in today with your sign images. I’d love to see how you use signs in your photography! Do share.

We continue to study the balance of shapes in Exploring with a Camera this month. I’m curious what you all think of this exploration, since there haven’t been too many participants as of yet, which is unusual. What is holding you back?

Today’s image is from Portland, captured after I visited the Mark Rothko exhibition at the Portland Art Museum a few weeks ago. While visiting the exhibition I fell in love with this painting, No. 8. I sat and looked at it for a long time, wondering what it was that attracted me so deeply. It was partially the colors, but upon further contemplation I realized it was also the balance. This painting perfectly balances color, shape and line. Of course! I would love that in painting, as much as I love that in photography. Mark Rothko’s paintings distill this balance down to essential elements. With his paintings you are not distracted into thinking it is “of something,” as you would be in a photograph. You can see the balance for what it is. I love that!

So, how are you doing with balance? I would love to see. I would also love to hear what you are struggling with, if this topic doesn’t connect with you. Maybe we can explore that together.

I love the texture of walls, but having an image of a textured wall without any other context is not so interesting. Including a piece of a window, door or some other architectural element helps provide context. The corner of the window in the image below “anchors” the wall in reality, so you know what you are looking at.

I’ve enjoyed seeing the windows shared so far! Have you had a chance to explore windows yet? You have another week to join in!

A few days ago, I had my Twitter account hacked. I could have kicked myself, because after the fact I realized that I was a willing participant to the hacking. After living in a world of internet spam, with all of the suspicious emails, tweets and blog comments I see all the time, I finally fell for one. Ouch. A blow to the pride for sure, but it taught me a thing or two about myself. About trust and belief.

So, how did this happen? First, I got a direct message from someone I know. I don’t follow a huge number of people on twitter, and while some of them are big names who don’t know me from the next person, many of them are people I’ve interacted with online or in person. This message came from someone I know, have met in person and exchanged emails with. A friend. So the first step in my downfall was receiving the message from someone I trust. It gave it a credibility it otherwise wouldn’t.

The second, and more insidious piece, is how I believed the message. I’ve never fallen for wiring money to Africa, or making thousands of dollars working from home, or the latest pharmaceutical scam. But this message preyed upon my vulnerability, saying, “You seen what this person is saying about you? {Link} terrible things.” I believed it. I clicked the link, “logged in” to twitter and willingly gave up my password. Why? Because I’ve always had this underlying fear that sometime, somewhere, someone was going to say terrible things about me on the Internet. It has to just be a matter of time, when you put yourself out there publicly like this, right? I realize now this wasn’t just a fear they preyed upon, I carried it around so long it became a belief. I have been sure that it would happen. Steeling myself against the day when it would come. So in my head I said, “Yep, it’s finally happened.” And I clicked the link.

I have to admit the smarts of these hackers, preying on our trust and belief like this. I have to admit chagrin, that I’m not as savvy against hackers as I thought. The hackers only took advantage so far. My own belief helped them the rest of the way.

I apologize if you got the same twitter message from me this week, I hope you saw it for what it was and didn’t click the link. I hate to think that I might have lost the trust of others in this way. But I did learn one important lesson out of all of this. I’ve been carrying around a belief that needs to go. No one has said terrible things about me yet. Maybe someone will someday, maybe they won’t. There is no point in believing it will happen. That just makes me vulnerable, to my own insecurities and hackers alike.

Sometimes, when you go out to photograph, instead of you finding an image, an image finds you. Unexpected, unbidden, it calls for you to capture it with the camera. It begs you to pin it down, within the frame.

This is one of the things I love about photography. This is why I like to wander around, camera in hand. I never know what I will find. I never know what will jump out at me. The scene that originally caught my eye usually gets transformed into something different. I get to see the world in new ways. The world begs me to see it in new ways, to frame and reframe it.

I wasn’t looking for this image, but it needed to be captured when I found it. I wonder why?